


sorting

by Magali_Dragon



Series: one shots and other drabbles [18]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Hogwarts House Sorting Ceremony, Magic, No Plot/Plotless, Patronus, Short One Shot, The Sorting Hat, Witches, Wizards, but you don't need to read that one, post 'hatstall'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:21:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23985976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magali_Dragon/pseuds/Magali_Dragon
Summary: When it is Jon and Dany's daughter's time to go to Hogwarts, she worries about her House after knowing that her parents' were a bit of an anomaly, but Jon comforts her.Set fifteen years post my fic'hatstall.'
Relationships: Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen
Series: one shots and other drabbles [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1567705
Comments: 41
Kudos: 326





	sorting

**Author's Note:**

> I am dealing with another round of mental health struggles (kudos to my formerly toxic department at work which I just got out of but still manages to try to tear me down) and so I'm struggling with writing-- which means I go to writing short little fluffy one-shots and also have been bingeing an unhealthy amount of Harry Potter, both reading and the movies. 
> 
> Ergo...this fic was born! It has no plot. Enjoy.

“Do it again Daddy!”

Jon pretended to make a big to-do over the request, rolling his eyes and huffing exasperatingly before he fell from two legs down to four, wagging his tail and allowing his children to squeal, climbing up onto his back, their little fingers tight on the thick fur around his neck as he barked and danced in place, spinning in circles. They led on, laughing uncontrollably, their little bodies so overcome with emotion they could no longer contain themselves and eventually tumbled off into the grass.

He lolled his tongue out, sitting back on his haunches, as his son and daughter both popped to their feet, rushing him again. They were both distracted at the last minute by a roar above their heads, chattering excitedly and pointing at the great black and red beast that flew above, before disappearing into the crowds. He rolled his eyes; always showed up, he was. He shifted, rising to his feet and dusting grass stains and dirt from the knees of his jeans. “Alright, in you get, wash up for supper, Mummy’s home.”

Little Rhae made a face, scowling so hard that steam puffed from her ears. “Aw, but I don’t wanna’. I wanna’ keep playing!”

“Nope, supper.” He tapped his wand idly to the crown of her head, stopping the steam. He heard a little explosion, turning in time to see his son emerge from a ball of flame he’d conjured and sighed again. “Aemon!”

Aemon laughed. He was Rhae’s twin and where his sister was the ‘ice’, he was definitely the ‘fire.’ He had first popped into flame when he was about a week old, terrifying Sansa who had been holding him before he returned to an unburnt state, sighing and curling up in his blankets as if nothing had ever happened. Jon was terrified at what that type of magical ability would one day manifest into, but he really feared for Rhae, who had developed her mother’s exceptional skill at Legilimency, despite having no concept of what it actually was and had little ability to control it.

He ushered them inside, in time to see their mother coming from the front hall, adjusting her braids, which were askew from the dragon flight. “Mummy!” they exclaimed.

“Hello my little sweetlings!” Dany exclaimed, falling to her knees to hug and kiss them both. She looked up at him, beaming. “Hello darling, where is Lyanna?”

“She’s upstairs, has probably read the _Standard Book of Spells, Year One_ at least a dozen times by now.”

“Oh I’m so sorry I was unable to go with you to get her things.” She scowled, picking up Rhae, who was trying to grab hold of her wand. She rolled her eyes, making a face quite similar to the one that Rhae had made at him a moment before. “The Minister seems to disagree with my suggestions regarding the current treatment of dragons. I understand their blood is valuable as is powdered dragon claw, but the idea of slaughtering them for meat is obscene and I refuse to allow…”

He listened to her rail on and on about Robert Baratheon and his refusal to listen to her campaign for the ethical treatment of dragons, which had become a passionate project of hers when on assignment in Siberia she had encountered another dragon egg, taking it back home and adding it to the second one she’d found while in Ireland. She’d ended up hatching them both, adding Rhaegal and Viserion to the ranks. She’d excitedly discovered that Rhaegal was the extinct Emerald Longtail breed and Viserion was the first Siberian Snow Scale that anyone had seen in centuries.

As Drogon had no known breed, despite resembling a Hungarian Horntail, she bestowed him the title of the Black Dreadfire, taking what those who encountered him ended up invoking—the name of Balerion, Aegon the Conqueror’s dragon. It had pushed her to step back from Auror duties to pursue Dragonology. Not to mention the possible marrying of the two, as an Auror who liked to use dragons to interrogate and find her quarry, as it seemed she could _speak_ to them. There had been no known Dracomouths since Aegon himself. It was quite a feat.

If anything, it kept Jon on his toes. He was often the only Auror who could tolerate Robert Baratheon and usually had to find ways to keep the man off the concept that the Auror known as Daenerys Targaryen might have reminded him of someone, but he wasn’t sure. He did not like Targaryens, he always said, but he wasn’t sure _why._ Rhaegar’s sacrificial Memory Charm seemed to be holding.

Jon listened to her speak of dragons, making a note to talk to her later about his upcoming trip to Azkaban, to do the routine inspections now that they had dismissed the dementors. He had convinced Baratheon it was in the best interest of the Wizarding World to do so, but it required plenty of visits to the North Sea fortress, to ensure that none of the current guards were growing susceptible to the Dark witches and wizards’ charms who resided within its walls.

He set the dinner on the table, swishing his wand with a muttered _Expecto Patronum_ and his dragon Patronus swished around before flying up the staircase. A moment later he heard his eldest daughter shout that she was _BUSY!_. He made a face and Dany sighed, shouting up. “Don’t make me use a Summoning Charm on you!”

“You can’t use Summoning Charms on humans!” Lyanna yelled.

He couldn’t remember if that was true or not; fourth-year Charms was quite a long time ago, try as he might to not think of it. He shivered; he was getting old. His daughter was only two weeks away from boarding the Hogwarts Express for her first year. Soon the twins would be ready to go as well. Gods, they would be in for it when those two finally showed up in the Great Hall for their Sorting. A natural Pyromagi and Legilimens. It would be an interesting year for those professors for certain.

Jon just chalked it up to the mingling of the Stark and Targaryen bloodlines that had resulted in him and Daenerys and their various abilities. He swished his wand again, Conjuring up the twins’ milk and then directed Lyanna’s chair to rattle up the stairs. A moment later she was shrieking, flying down the stairwell, locked into the chair which landed with a light thud in front of her spot at the table.

She glared at them both, violet eyes burning angrily. “I cannot _believe_ you just did that!”

“Believe it,” he replied dryly.

“I need to get a leg up on the other students!”

“I can tell you for certain that no one is reading their spellbooks two weeks before term.”

“Mum did!”

“Yes, but your mum is weird.”

Dany had a fork halfway from the chicken on her plate to her mouth when she turned to give him an amused yet annoyed look. “Oh really? _Weird_ am I? I would rather say that I was _prepared_.” She looked at Lyanna who was still mad at him for her unceremonious trip down the stairs to the table. Lyanna glanced at her. She smiled. “I was led to believe my whole life that I was a Muggle, you see. It was when I went to Hogwarts that I learned I was actually a pure-blood witch. My brother was a Squib and did not want me to live in the Wizarding World. I wanted to learn as much as I could.” She tapped her wand on the table. “But you already know most things.”

Lyanna wrinkled her nose; she looked so much like her mother when she did that, Jon thought. “I just want to make sure I know everything.”

“You can’t always know everything,” he said.

There was a clatter of glass, Rhae and Aemon both jumping as they had tried to hide their vegetables and ended up knocking over their glasses, sending them crashing to the hardwood floor. “Oops,” Aemon mumbled.

Jon sighed, waving his wand. “ _Reparo._ ”

The glasses mended immediately and flew back into place. He tried to be stern with the twins, but they were so innocent and smiling, toothy grins that looked just like their mother, he had no heart to reprimand them for making a mess and not just eating. He scowled at their sprouts, which were trying to hide beneath the remnants of their chicken. He twirled his wand again, the chicken vanishing to reveal the sprouts. Aemon made a face. “I hate when you do that,” he mumbled.

“I’ll do it again until you eat them.”

“When can I be a witch?” Rhae mumbled, through a mouth of bread. She reached her hand over to her sister, giggling when Lyanna’s plate levitated off the table.

Dany was the one who sent the plate flying back to the table. She sighed, exhausted. “You are a witch, you cannot go to Hogwarts until you are eleven.”

“Aegon’s Beard.”

It was so funny to hear the six-year old mumble the familiar complaint that he had no heart to say that it was only for adults to say, instead Jon just sighed and wondered if there was any more whiskey in the cabinet, once the kids all went to sleep. _Yes._ He glared at Dany, who pretended to be fascinated in her sprouts, slipping with the Legilimency. He never bothered to employ Occlumency with her, but the occasional deposits of information in his brain straight from hers was still startling after this time.

Once everyone finished and he wrestled the twins through their bath—Aemon made the bubbles from his shampoo explode into purple fireworks which took over forty-five minutes to Vanish and Charm back to normal. He also had to enchant Lyanna’s lamps to turn off at a certain hour, or else she would be awake for hours reading. He knew it didn’t really matter; she was already taking her wand from its simple black box, taking out the weirwood with its wolf’s head handle, hers fashioned from holly and the eyes of the wolf violet like hers.

The wandmaker the Starks used, Three-Eyed Raven, had even made the wand specifically for her, using an interesting core of direwolf hair and a dragon heartstring, this one procured from the single remaining pieces of heart that belonged to Balerion the Black Dread, which the Ministry finely regulated for wandmakers who dared to work with the powerful substance. Jon wasn’t sure what to make of his daughter’s wand, but he knew it was powerful, with the core being what it was. It worked for her though, the moment her fingers enclosed around it, it was like a harsh winter wind blew through, and her violet eyes burned with fire.

Dany insisted that their daughter was going to be an incredibly powerful witch. Jon was fine with that, he just wanted her to sleep sometimes. He eventually dragged his feet down the hallway to his and Dany’s bedroom, collapsing face-first onto the mattress, his mouth filling with the cotton of the duvet cover as he groaned. He eventually tilted his face up, staring at his wife, who was peering out the windows. “What are you looking for?” he wondered.

“Oh, nothing. I like that we live in a Muggle community, but sometimes the across-the-street neighbors are so nosy.” She made a face, drawing the curtains tighter. “Maybe I shouldn’t have planted that lemon tree….”

“The lemon tree that manages to produce lemons year-round even in cold and dreary London?” Jon wondered, arching a brow with a smirk. He knew she felt comfortable in the Muggle world, as she had grown up believing that she was a Muggle. He, on the other hand, had only ever lived in the Wizarding world and pretending to be a Muggle was often quite difficult for him. Even growing up without being able to use his magic didn’t mean much, with Catelyn and Ned and all the other witches and wizards surrounding him. He had never seen Muggle money in his life, until Dany gave him a lesson on pounds and Euros and dollars. Quite confusing. He also really despised Muggle transport, not understanding why he couldn’t just Apparate or pull out his broomstick.

Also the neighbors always asked funny questions about a great white dog wandering around the neighborhood—accompanied by his dark brown friend with a peculiar silver patch on his chest. Jon tapped the locket he always kept around his neck, with the joined photo of Rhaegar and Lyanna. He went over to peek out the window and sure enough, the neighbor was pointing over at their house, saying something to another. He had half a mind to issue the Bat-Bogey Hex.

“No, don’t hex him.”

“Stop reading my mind.”

Dany smirked, throwing a pillow at him. “I didn’t, I can just tell. Your first reaction is hex first.”

“Well I am an Auror,” he said, puffing his chest. He laughed at her eyeroll, crawling into the bed. He sighed, shaking his head. “Gonna’ be weird without Lyanna around. Cannot believe she’s old enough to go to Hogwarts.” They were getting _old._ Felt like just yesterday he was shaking in his trainers, sitting in the compartment on the Hogwarts Express, while Robb went on and on about how they were going to be in Gryffindor together and they would rule the school, they would be popular and famous, and defeat every Dark wizard they met.

 _How funny things end up_ , he thought idly, a sudden flash of a petite little girl with silver braids and kind smile filled his mind. He smiled, kissing the top of her head, those same silver braids snaking around his hand as he twirled them. Dany probably knew what he was thinking; he never employed Occlumency with her, except when it came to her birthday gifts. Or maybe when he did something exceptionally stupid and dangerous at work.

She smiled gently, lowering her head to the crook of his neck, sighing. “I was so terrified, sitting there on that stool, when the Hat did not shout my House within seconds like everyone else. Thought maybe there had been a mistake.”

“Same here.”

“And then we both got Slytherin.” She chuckled. “And everyone had been telling me on the train that that was the worst House you could get. I must be _evil_ , being a Targaryen and in Slytherin to boot.”

“How do you think I felt? I was the odd Stark out. Not even a stark really. Ending up in Slytherin in a family of Gryffindors.” He remembered feeling ready to pass out; seeing Robb’s disappointed face and hearing his groan. Except then Dany had bounded over to him, sat beside him and he felt a warmth in his chest that he had never felt before, like everything was going to be okay because they were both in this all together.

He kissed her head again, squeezing her forearm lightly, as they lay wrapped up in each other. Fifteen years ago, to the day, that they met, they would drop Lyanna off at Platform 9 ¾. Incredible to think. They had had Lyanna quite young; she was a bit of a surprise, born a year after their married.

“What House do you think she’ll get?” she wondered, breaking his thoughts. He glanced down, watching her trace the outline of the locket under his t-shirt. She peered up, chewing her lower lip nervously. “I know she does not care, but she’s scared of Slytherin, of what Robb and all your family have put in her head. Even if we were and we’re good she just thinks…”

“I think she’ll be in Ravenclaw, honestly, brains like hers.” He didn’t want to worry Dany further. Aemon had commented, a few years ago, after Jon had finished a particularly dangerous undercover assignment, wherein he had missed the birth of the twins and was terrified that he had ruined it all with his family in his quest against a particularly vicious and violent Dark wizard, that he thought they Sorted too early. That perhaps Jon’s desperate need to prove himself, his resourcefulness, and his skill at saving his own skin, while admirable qualities for Slytherin, were done for the _greater good_ and his bravery, courage, and nerve made him well-suited for Gryffindor.

_”Then again, both of your parents were Gryffindor, so I suppose I should not be surprised,” Aemon chortled. “And you were a Hatstall too. Although, the Sorting Hat claims it never makes a mistake.”_

Dany moved closer to him, kissing at his neck. She moved to straddle him, pushing up his t-shirt over his abdomen, her fingers skimming lightly along his sides. She dropped her head over his, kissing hard. “Enough talk.”

Not that he was complaining, but he huffed: “You started it.”

“And I’m finishing it. Shush.”

Jon did as he was told, lest she issue a Silencing Charm on him. She’d been known to do it too. He sighed, happily allowing her to do as she wanted, since it had always worked in his favor for the last fifteen years anyway.

~/~/~/~

“Quite a lot of luggage there, you need help?”

Jon popped his head out of the boot of the Muggle auto—an _SUV_ , Dany corrected him always—to see one of the neighbors looking over with an odd sort of frown on their face. He glanced at the Hogwarts trunk, which were bewitched with Undetectable Extension Charms and also Featherlight Charms so they could contain the multitude of objects that the students’ required and the extra trunk of book that Dany was sending back to Hogwarts for Tyrion, Professor Martell, and Aemon—books that she had _borrowed_ the last time she’d been at the school for a lecture to Tormund’s Care of Magical Creatures class on what it really was like to work with dragons.

He smiled politely, waving his hand away, while his wand burned in the pocket of his jacket. “No thank you, quite alright.”

“That an owl?”

He looked at the large birdcage with the massive snowy owl, who was glaring up at him, furious he had removed her from her indoor perch and placed her in the cage for the journey. Lyanna had named her Aurora. Aurora screeched, at the same time Ghost wandered out of the house, his massive appearance surprising the Muggle. “Um…” Jon couldn’t think of a good way to deal with it, he was already stressed with having to get the twins up early, coax Lyanna to drink a Calming Draught as she was losing her mind over whether she would make any friends and what would happen if she didn’t get Sorted _at all_ , and Dany’s newest dragon baby had lit the basement on fire.

He stuck his wand casually out of the pocket of his jacket, muttered: “ _Confundo_ ,” and walked back to the house while the bewildered Muggle just went back into their house, unsure why they had even walked out in the first place.

Dany stood on the front stoop, glaring. “Did you just Confund that Muggle?”

“No.”

“Liar.”

“I don’t want to hear it, we’re running late.” He grabbed hold of Rhae, who was trying to stuff some Dungbombs into her sister’s trunk. “Ah! She does _not_ need your encouragement.”

Rhae pouted. “I want to go.”

“In due course.”

It took about twenty more minutes, Dany deciding to drive since Jon really did not do well with the whole clutch and accelerator thing—he kept getting the gears confused. He stuck his wand over the back of his shoulder, nonverbally shot _Muffilato_ towards his children, giving him and Dany some relative peace during the drive from their home in Islington to King’s Cross Station. He wanted to just park the car and do a Disillusionment Charm on it so they would not have to pay, but Dany wouldn’t hear of it.

He really did not understand how Muggles could live without magic.

It was fascinating though. He couldn’t help but feel giddy, like a child again, watching them walk around with their things called _cellphones_ to their ears and how they had to use little cardboard things around their coffee and tea mugs to keep from burning their hands instead of just using a simple Cooling Spell or even a Shield Charm. Then there were the automated machines for the tickets! “Ingenious,” he mumbled, unable to stop staring as someone put in a plastic card thing into a machine and it spit out cash—funny paper bills instead of Galleons and Sickles. “Dany look! What is that again?”

“It’s called an ATM, Daddy,” Lyanna said, glaring sideways. She hissed, moving closer to him. “And will you please _stop_?! You’re embarrassing me!”

Fur a bit ruffled, he said nothing, although part of him wanted to step behind a partition and shift into direwolf form, if she really wanted to be embarrassment. He might still do it, he thought, as they approached the platform. He held back Rhae and Aemon, who were about to take off at a complete run, excited to finally go through the wall, but not when there was a Muggle casually leaning against it on the other side in clear view.

“Come on darling,” Dany said, helping their daughter, who was now quaking. They approached it and then slipped in easily, no one looking or else the wiser.

He grabbed the twins by their hands, tugging them. “You want to run for it?” he asked, chuckling, now that the Muggle had moved out of the way. They nodded eagerly. “Alright, let’s go!”

They ran, picking up speed as they approached the wall, and then suddenly they were enveloped in a great gust of steam from the scarlet train’s smokestack, the platform appearing around them, for it had been there the entire time. Rhae squealed, bouncing on her heels and clapping her hands. “Look!”

Aemon pointed, grinning widely. “I see Uncle Robb!”

Jon glanced to where they were gesturing, walking with them down towards the end of the platform, where Dany and Lyanna had already met up with Robb, Robb’s wife Margaery, and their son Eddy, who was getting plied with sweets from Catelyn, while Ned chatted with another couple, who Jon thought might have been other Northerners, judging by their fur robes. He wondered where Arya was, as she had wanted to see Lyanna off, but he supposed it would be fine. Arya was teaching Dueling at Hogwarts that year, a new N.E.W.T.-level elective course for those who apparently had death wishes.

He waved at them as he approached. “Robb,” he greeted.

“I was just telling Eddy to be nice to Lyanna if she’s in Gryffindor, although who knows, might be a Slytherin like her Mum and Dad,” Robb said, grinning at Lyanna, like he was trying to be supportive, but her face paled even further, giving her the impression of a ghost. He frowned. “Ah…or not?”

Eddy was in his second-year and like all the Starks save him and Sansa, was in Gryffindor. He liked to brag about _everything_ he learned to Lyanna during the winter and summer holidays. Jon kept trying to tell Lyanna that all she would be learning how to do as a first year was simple spells, more practical use ones, and Eddy was no doubt bragging and downright lying about being able to turn his teacup into a wolf cub. “Inanimate to live transfiguration is exceptionally difficult and you do not learn that until third year,” Dany advised.

“What if I don’t get into any House?” Lyanna whispered. It was probably to herself, but Jon heard her. He glanced around everyone, who were consumed with talking, the twins were arguing with Ned about something, Margaery was tossing her chestnut hair over her shoulder and Dany was stuck listening to Catelyn complain to her about how the twins needed to get haircuts, or did she have too much time on her hands with _dragons_?

He wanted to hex Catelyn, but refrained, gently guiding Lyanna away from the family. She had her head lowered; her hand tight around her wand. He knelt, smiling up at her. Even at eleven, she was still a little on the small side. Petite, like her mother. He smoothed his hand over her hair and down her arm to squeeze her hand tight in his. “Did you know that your mother and I were both Hatstalls?”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

“Aye. I was the first one up, the Sorting Hat really could not figure it out. You see, I did not know who my real father was, and I was scared that the Hat would not be able to put me anywhere, because I did not fit my mother’s House, which was Gryffindor. The Hat couldn’t decide between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Even Hufflepuff,” he chuckled. He remembered the Hat wondering if his devotion to his friends was not also related to self-preservation, which was more Slytherin, and it struggled over that for about two minutes of the over five he sat on the stool.

Lyanna frowned. “But you were in Slytherin? And Mummy too.”

He nodded, weary of having to try to explain that his House was _not_ full of evil. He was an Auror, wasn’t he? He hunted evil. He tapped his finger to her heart. “So long as you keep this open, the Sorting Hat will find a place for you. It is never wrong. Wherever you end up, your mum and I are proud of you and we love you.” He heard the whistle of the train, the sound of the engine’s stovepipe hissing as it revved up, ready to depart. He glanced at the clock—10:58. He wrapped his arms tight around her, closing his eyes and squeezing lightly. “You are going to be great. Remember, we love you, that is all that matters, alright?”

She nodded quickly. “Yes.”

“Now quick, go say goodbye to your mother.” He stood, watching his little girl run off to Dany, who was now in tears, finally realizing that they would be going home with only two children and not three. He hurriedly flicked his fingers over the tear that had gathered in the corner of his eye and went over to them, watching Lyanna climb aboard and lean out a window with Eddy. He waved, laughing, and glad to see her face break into a smile.

Dany gripped his arm, blowing kisses and waving. “We love you! You’ll be brilliant!”

“Eddy you be nice!” Margaery called.

Robb shouted. “Beat those dirty Slytherins in Quidditch this year!”

Jon elbowed him, shouting back over his cousin. “Beat those stupid Gryffindors in the House Cup, Lyanna!”

The train was gaining speed, the last carriage finally pulling out of the train station, and soon it was nothing but a smoky little speck in the distance, leaving them all behind on the platform. He felt his heart sag a bit in his chest, missing his daughter already, but he knew it would be alright. In the background he could hear the faint pops of people Apparating away, no longer necessary to go back through to the Muggle world now that their children had gone. He glanced at the twins, who appeared miserable, and picked up Rhae, hugging her tight, while Dany hoisted Aemon up, almost bent sideways from holding him.

They said their goodbyes to Margaery, Robb, and Ned and Catelyn. They would all be Apparating back to Winterfell. Robb tried to bet him that Lyanna would be in Gryffindor, but Jon wasn’t so sure. He had a feeling, he wanted to see if he was right. He carried Rhae back through the wall to the Muggle world, still holding her as they went back out to the car.

“I want to go to Hogwarts,” Rhae announced.

“Soon enough,” Dany said.

“Mummy can we please play with Drogon?” Aemon asked.

“I suppose you have earned a treat, we will go see the dragons.”

Jon helped buckle them into their seats, eyeing the driver’s side as Dany moved to get into the passenger. “Ah…perhaps you should…” he gestured to it and Rhae giggled, making fun of him for not being able to drive. He puffed his chest slightly, trading places with Dany. “I can drive, I just…choose not to.”

Dany rolled her eyes, glancing sideways at him. “You choose not to because you can’t.”

He was about to protest again, when Aemon piped up. “What House will Lyanna be in?”

He exchanged a look with his wife. “Only the Sorting Hat knows,” she said, rather wise if he thought so himself. She reached back, knocking Aemon’s foot off the back of her seat. She twitched the tip of her wand where he could see, threatening. “Don’t make me Full-Body Bind you.”

The twins could push the limits, but they knew when to quit, and ceased kicking and pushing their feet into the back of the seats. He leaned into his seat, staring out the window, idly twirling his wand, thinking back to when he’d been Sorted. The fear, the angst, and the sheer embarrassment. He was a Stark according to Robb, who had already made friends on the train, had that swaggering confidence Jon had only dreamed of having his entire life, too busy being shunted to the side by Catelyn, and wondering if his mother would treat him with the same unadulterated fashion as Catelyn did with Robb. He now understood his mother had given her life to keep him safe, had died for him in a way, and she would of course had adored him.

And he had felt a strange connection to the pretty silver-haired girl with purple eyes who was standing behind Robb in line. The way she spoke with authority and confidence he wished he had. The smile she gave him, corners of her lips tipped up shyly, and the encouraging grin when it had been his turn to go to the stool.

When the Sorting Hat wondered where he should go, thinking on his history, and he’d suddenly had a thought when the tinny voice had said something about his mother’s House, and he’d wondered: _What House was my father in?_ The Hat had chuckled and simply said:

_“Ah, thinking of him, are you? Hmm, yes, I remember that one, quite a difficult placement himself, but it was obvious in the end, the courage there…now I think with you I know what to do. You desperately want to prove yourself, to show them you aren’t the bastard they think you are…brains and brawn can only go so far, but you will do anything to survive, and I think I know exactly what that means…”_

The moment it screamed “Slytherin”, he had felt his heart plummet to his feet. _The bad House._ He hadn’t known what to do. It was a mistake of course, he was a Hatstall after all, and the Hat had made a mistake. Except Melisandre was taking the Hat off his head and the table at the far left was clapping for him, excited that they got the Hatstall. He had been miserable; he knew for certain Robb would be Gryffindor and not even the nice Tarly boy he’d met in line would end up in his House. All he had was stupid Theon.

And then she pranced up there, silver braids bouncing, most assure of herself. _Daenerys Targaryen._ Another Hatstall, another curious arrival at Hogwarts, and like all the Targaryens before her, save for a few, she went to Slytherin. Except the Hat had waffled, clearly, and he had been grateful, relieved even, when she came to sit next to him, making a joke about how he couldn’t be the only one.

He’d gone to sleep that evening thinking that he might have been in love.

“We’re home Jon, you getting out or not?”

He blinked, not realizing that the car had even stopped. “Oh,” he blurted. He glanced at his front, which was covered with white powder. He frowned, brushing at it. _Snow._

Dany smirked, climbing out of the car. “You really were thinking, but since we weren’t getting cold and wet, I figured I wouldn’t bother you.” She paused, halfway out the car, concerned. “Will you tell me later?”

“Yes.” Although she could figure it out for herself easy enough, peeking into his brain. Jon got out of the car, pushing the kid’s into the house, and Dany went to get the Floo Powder to bring them to go visit the dragons, leaving him to wander the house like a strange ghost, with Ghost following after him, whining slightly when they came to Lyanna’s empty room. He ruffled the wolf’s head. “She’ll be back for Christmas. Come on, let’s go write her a letter, she will like that, first day at school, already getting mail.”

~/~/~/~

That evening he sent the family owl—aptly named Owl by Lyanna when she was a child—off with a package of sweets, letters, and drawings from the twins, and even a dragon scale from Drogon. He was exhausted, ready to go to sleep, when there was a light tapping at the kitchen window. Dany had already put the twins to bed, and he was just finishing up cleaning the kitchen—his wife did not need to know he was using magic instead of the Muggle way.

He took the letter from the tawny barn owl, sending it off and glanced at the embossed wax on the back of the thick parchment envelope. He smiled, seeing the Hogwarts emblem. Except, his heart beat quickly. It would probably be from Aemon, telling them about Lyanna. He chewed his lower lip, waving his wand to turn off the lights, and went upstairs, finding Dany sitting on the edge of the bed, fussing with something in her braids. “I’ll hex my children, don’t think I won’t,” she mumbled, tugging at some Droobles Blowing Gum that was sticking the strands together. “To think it was funny to leave this on my _pillow_!”

Jon frowned, studying the gum pulling in her hair. He flicked his wand. “ _Tergeo_.”

The gum siphoned off, leaving only a bit left. Dany sighed, rolling her eyes. “I could have done that.”

“Letter from Hogwarts,” he said, holding it up, ceasing anymore of her complaints over whether it was better to use magic or not.

Her face paled and she jumped up from the bed, snatching it out of his hands, tearing into the back of it. She unfolded the parchment, glancing up at him and smiled, shaky. “Well? What do you think?”

He shook his head, unable to think, moving to stand beside her. “I’m not sure. What does Uncle Aemon say?”

Dany opened the letter again, scanning the writing, with Jon gripping her shoulders, and reading over them:

_My dears, It brings me great happiness to share with you that this evening the Sorting Hat placed Lyanna into Gryffindor House. You will find it amusing, I am sure, to find the Hat took almost ten minutes before deciding her House. It believe it must run in families, to stump the Sorting Hat so, for no one surely has done so as much as you. Lyanna was quite excited and I am sure she will share the news with you soon. She reminds me of her namesake, what I have already heard from Tormund, who greeted her at the train station, and what you know I can pick up throughout the castle in my own ways. I look forward to seeing—metaphorically mind, even as an old man I can joke—whether young Rhaena and Aemon will follow in the same mold. I do hope you will consider visiting Hogwarts soon, perhaps even for a guest lecture to our senior-level students’ Defense Against the Dark Arts class._

_Your beloved uncle,_

_Aemon_

“Gryffindor,” he breathed, smiling wide. _Of course._ Lyanna was courageous, brave, smart, and somewhat impulsive. She might have been worrying nonstop over arriving at Hogwarts, but he knew she would thrive. He glanced at Dany, who had dropped the paper onto the dresser beside the bed, not looking at him. He frowned. “Dany?”

She sniffed. “Nothing.”

 _Oh love._ He tried not to laugh, even though a soft chuckle managing to get out, and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her to his chest. She curled into him, her tears wetting his shirt and her fingers tightening around his body. He rained kisses over the top of her hair, cuddling her. “It will be alright, it’s just a silly old school rivalry you know…we won’t let her paint the house in red and gold.”

“Oh it isn’t that, I’m just so happy for her,” she cried. She wiped her eyes, fingers stilly shaky, but now he could see in her turned up face that she was smiling, violet irises shining with her delight. She cupped his jaw, whispering. “It is good of her to forge her own path. She will be Lyanna Snow, not just ‘daughter of Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen.’ I am grateful.”

 _Me too._ He lifted her up, holding her to him as she linked her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, and he carried her to their bed, depositing her with a light bounce onto the mattress. He fell beside her, both of them immediately gravitating to the other. He dragged his fingers through her silver tresses, smiling to himself. He glanced down at her, watching her fingertip trace along his collarbone. “What of the twins, you think?”

“Oh Slytherin no doubt.”

He laughed. “Aye, no doubt.”

Dany lifted her face, grinning at him. “Those were some of the happiest years of my life, being at Hogwarts with you.”

“And now?”

“Now?” she echoed. She sat up slightly, peering down at him, her smile wide and lips blush pink, cheeks reddening with whatever thoughts making their way through her mind. He cocked his head, wishing he was good at Legilimency, so he could weave through whatever had that look on her face. She arched her brow, lowering her lips to his. “Remember the Room of Requirement?”

That was a peculiar thing to think about, he thought, frowning. He shrugged, lightly dragging his fingertips over her bare arm. She shivered, the tremor reverberating through his body, forcing him closer to her. “Aye.”

“Your birthday?” she husked. Her tongue darted out to wet her upper lip, her pupils blacking out the violet around them.

A warm flush crept up the back of his neck. That was some time ago now. He tightened his grip around her. “Aye,” he repeated. He shifted, allowing her to straddle his hips, her hands pressing against his chest. He dropped his hands down to hold her sides, studying her, wondering what this little trip down memory lane meant for the present. A loopy grin pulled on his face. “That was a very good day.”

“I often wonder if anyone else was trying to get into the Room. We were in there for quite some time.”

“Well we had a lot of time to make up for.”

Dany chuckled, reaching at his neck to tug out the locket, her thumb running over the engraving. She patted it lightly, before taking it off and setting it on the nightstand. He wrapped his arms around her, drawing her down to him for a long kiss, his mind filling with the sunlit memories of that day in the Room, where they had finally completed the long journey from nervous little first-years to self-assured adults.

Or something like adults, he figured. He ran his hands down the bumps of her spine, breaking their kiss long enough to whisper: “I love you. I have since you said goodnight to be in the common room. That first night.”

She giggled, forehead falling to his. “Me too.”

“Should we tell Lyanna about the Room?” he wondered, with a tiny little smile.

Dany rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “No, let her figure it out herself. She’s a Gryffindor, you know. She’ll find it soon enough.”

“Creeping about the castle at night looking for trouble.”

“We did our fair share of that too.”

Memories filled him, of running from class to class with her, of a fight in the library over silly feelings, hiding a dragon egg in the Shrieking Shack, and practicing the Patronus Charm. He broke away quickly, fumbling with his wand, filling himself with the happiest of the memories, the day they got married and when Lyanna was born, and when they brought the twins home.

The dragon erupted from his wand, circling around them for a moment, before fading off out the window. Dany grinned, leaning back into him, shaking her head. “I love you too.”

They folded back into each other again, while the lights in their room flickered, surging bright and then dimming, as the magic inside of them began to grow wildly. Jon picked up his wand once more, flicking it aimlessly.

_”Nox.”_

**fin.**


End file.
